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Nigerian Chess Calendar For 2018

The giant of Africa only has one tournament currently registered as a classical rated event within the shores of Nigeria, with others likely to come in as the year runs by, because July 1st, 2018 would present Nigeria with the selection of Players for the upcoming Chess Olympiad through the Fide rating released by the date. Many Nigerian chess players who feel they have what it takes to qualify would need to go out of the country to amass rating points if the tournaments do not come in as expected in the country. Considering the fact that there is just one registered tournament that can lead to a boost in some player’s ratings, some players may just be displaced from the top 5 of Nigeria’s ranking, except they get more opportunities within the shores of the country to improve their ratings. The next tournament would be Zone 4.4. in Burkina Faso (but for the terrorist attack, which pushed it to April) and then the African Individual Chess Championship in Zambia.

The upcoming CPAN Chevron Chess Challenge will be a very tough one, where all chess players within the ELO 2100 – 2200 rating points, would want to try and displace any of the top five (5) highest rated players in the country; provided some of them decide to relax like an African chess player called Lloyd who decided not to play any rated game after he became 2305 on Lichess.org. They might be in for a rude shock.

The top five (5) ladies would need to also come try and play to increase their ratings else, one lady from below could just displace them and they might not find any other opportunity within Nigeria to tip the scale in their favour. They would only hope that the National Women’s Championship would be a classical/rated event, which it promises to be. This is very possible since the highest rated player is only 1800+, they can get to play three (3) rounds per day with 1 hour + 30 secs added as their time control. Hence seven (7) rounds can be achieved.

Below is the compiled list of registered tournaments in Nigeria and the world as seen through the eye of the Nigerian Chess Federation for year 2018, which comprise of Nigerian Chess Federation’s (NCF) Calendar, Chess Players’ Association of Nigeria’s (CPAN) calendar and some individually organized tournament.